*We are constantly recruiting native English-speaking facilitator volunteers for the English Social Conversation program! Please see the invitation message at the end of this announcement.
Have you ever wondered what to talk about in a social conversation? Or, as an immigrant, do you sometimes feel it is difficult to join your local co-workers’ conversation because you don’t know the people or things they are talking about, or you have some everyday questions that you would like to know how local people would think or deal with? Or do you just want to find a safe, relaxing and friendly environment to talk to some native English speakers, and enjoy a pleasant conversation?
Continue reading “English Social Conversation @East and West Learning Connections 2023“
This dialogue will be conducted in Mandarin. For English introduction please jump to next heading in English.
Frank对话方柏林：过剩时代的有效学习
不用提社交媒体和电子游戏的干扰，单单是丰富的学习资源，各种纷纷涌现的机会，已经让这个年代的人应接不暇，于是我们把这个时代称为过剩时代。如何有效地学习是当下困扰人们的重要问题之一。在美国大学担任教育设计专家的方柏林博士，也是《过剩时代的学习》和《知识不是力量》等专著的作者。机械工程学博士Frank Wang 倡导终身学习，业余时间从事教育专栏写作，对新时代的学习方法和专注力培养等问题非常关注。二位嘉宾将作客东西联学社，就“过剩时代的学习”以及学者专家们倡导的一些新学习方式展开对话与讨论。
欢迎朋友们前来听讲、参与讨论，也欢迎提前将感兴趣的问题发给我们。
Continue reading “EAWLC Frank’s Dialogue with Berlin Fang: Effective Learning in the Age of Surplus/Frank对话方柏林：过剩时代的有效学习”
Shaoxuan Zhou (Joe), a professional architect and urban designer, came to our club in July of this year, giving a wonderful lecture on the appreciation of architectural designs. Other than an architect, ‘Coach Joe’ is also a known nickname among his friends: they often go to Joe for fitness advice, some finding it life-changing. It all started from a casual enrollment in a community gym in Beijing in 2005. At the time Joe had been bothered by stomach ulcer and insomnia for years. He even stopped his indie architecture design practice, spending most of the time on all kinds of sports in a hope to get his health back on the track, but had progressed very little. To his great surprise, Joe saw remarkable improvement in all of his symptoms within one month after he started the workout, and felt like overhauled after three months. Ever since then, Joe’s fascination with fitness training has driven him to educate himself on kinesiology, and become an personal trainer for himself, families and friends, in addition to a happy, healthy and successful architect again. Exercises, if done in a right way, is bound to bring life-changing benefits to your health, according to Joe, as he has witnessed himself!
Continue reading “EAWLC Zoom Learning for Curious People: The Fitness Remedy”
Click to learn more and register this free coaching series and view coach Ric’s profile.
How to Best Facilitate Meetings
September 26, 2024
After chairing and participating in countless meetings, I still try to fill every minute. In today’s session, I realized that planning for just 75% “true meeting time” can actually make meetings more relaxed and manageable, and using transition words helps to keep the conversation flowing smoothly without gaps. Another great hack from coach Ric is how to deal with distractive conversations: we should be supportive listeners, but stay focused on the agenda in the best interest of the group, offering to follow up later if necessary.
You can find this session’s presentation here: Strategies for Meetings and read the handout for Useful meeting phrases .
Continue reading “Notes for Lunch Coaching Hour for Business Communication, 2024”
This online club meets ALMOST every week to read books together, chapter by chapter. Club members, who come from diverse backgrounds and live in different countries, take turns to present the chapter(s) they volunteer to lead the reading of and facilitate the breakout room discussion that follows. We welcome you to join us and bring your unique life experience and perspective to the discussion!
Continue reading “EAWLC Social Reading Club/读点东西俱乐部: Read Together, Chapter by Chapter”
Saturday, September 28
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7:30 pm
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9:00 pm
This month, we are very much honoured to be joined by two humble, but highly achieving Canadians who have big hearts for the world. Come to see how they have developed their overseas charitable work from Canada over many years, in a secular and apolitical way, and discuss how such acts of kindness, whether big or small, can easily be achieved!
Time: Saturday September 28, 2024 at 7:30-9 P.M. (Eastern Time)
Free English Hybrid Event, transcript of translations of other languages available on Zoom.
Please RSVP to info@eawlc.org if you wish to participate in person, or register the online Zoom session.
At East & West Dialogue, volunteer guest speakers from different cultural backgrounds come to East and West Learning Connections to share their living experiences, expertise, thoughts, and have a dialogue with our audience.
This month, we are very much honoured to be joined by two humble, but highly achieving Canadians who have big hearts for the world. Come to see how they have developed their overseas charitable work from Canada over many years, in a secular and apolitical way, and discuss how such acts of kindness, whether big or small, can easily be achieved!
Time: Saturday September 28, 2024 at 7:30-9 P.M. (Eastern Time)
Please RSVP to info@eawlc.org if you wish to participate in person, or register the online Zoom session.
Continue reading “East & West Dialogue with Ron Kilius and Robin Mednick: Giving Gifts to the World”
EAWLC Lunch Coaching Hour for Business Communication 2024
Due to popular demand, we are delighted to announce the return of the renowned communication trainer, Ric Phillips, for workplace culture and business communication coaching. Register here!
Continue reading “EAWLC Lunch Coaching Hour for Business Communication, 2024”
Thursday, November 14
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7:30 pm
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8:30 pm
Judith Lawrence and her native English-speaking volunteer team are kindly facilitating Social Conversations to address those questions for you at the East and West Learning Connections. They come from all walks of life. We are so delighted to have a group of open-minded, friendly, and fun people as our facilitators! You are welcome to bring questions of interest to the breakout rooms. We try to keep a ratio of facilitators to participants at a maximum of around 1 to 4 in every session.
Register here.
Thursday, October 10
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7:30 pm
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8:30 pm
Judith Lawrence and her native English-speaking volunteer team are kindly facilitating Social Conversations to address those questions for you at the East and West Learning Connections. They come from all walks of life. We are so delighted to have a group of open-minded, friendly, and fun people as our facilitators! You are welcome to bring questions of interest to the breakout rooms. We try to keep a ratio of facilitators to participants at a maximum of around 1 to 4 in every session.
Register here.
Thursday, September 12
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7:30 pm
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8:30 pm
Judith Lawrence and her native English-speaking volunteer team are kindly facilitating Social Conversations to address those questions for you at the East and West Learning Connections. They come from all walks of life. We are so delighted to have a group of open-minded, friendly, and fun people as our facilitators! You are welcome to bring questions of interest to the breakout rooms. We try to keep a ratio of facilitators to participants at a maximum of around 1 to 4 in every session.
Register here.
Want to become an Entrepreneur? Already an Entrepreneur and have questions?
The East and West Learning Connections proudly kicks off a quarterly entrepreneur mentoring program hosted by Dr. Frank Wang, inviting business mentor Martin Copeland to sit in, and answer audience’s questions on everything about entrepreneurship. A successful business owner with over 40 ears’ experience in practice in both Canada and the U.S., and a business mentor since retirement, Martin would be happy to share practical advice as well as cultural context, and mindset insight of the business world to help guide early stage entrepreneurs. Visit here to watch an inspirational dialogue we had with Martin before.
Continue reading “EAWLC Entrepreneur Mentoring Program with Martin Copeland”
How to Order Chinese Cuisine Authentically to Get the Best of It
By Yang Wang
April 15, 2024
I hosted an eating-out for a blind women’s group last month on St. Patrick’s Day. In the group each member takes turns to organize an outing, usually to a restaurant of their choice.
I invited members to a Chinese restaurant, the Asian Legend in Scarborough. It was a bit of travel for some members who lived in the Downtown area or in the West end of the city. But hey, there were lots of authentic Chinese restaurants in Scarborough. And people in Scarborough spent that much time travelling to Downtown or further for work or entertainment all the time. I really wished we had had more subway lines extended to this east end of the city! The biggest truth was I had a ski accident in February, and was still having some headaches and dizziness so I took the advantage of being a host, and chose a good and relatively familiar restaurant that was nearby me. Anyway finally Five of us sat down at a Lazy Susan round table, and began to order.
Continue reading “How to Order Chinese Cuisine Authentically to Get the Best of It”